Enhanced Geothermal Systems Research Awarded $43.1 Million by US Department of Energy

Back in June the US Department of Energy announced that it would be investing $90 million into research advancing Enhanced Geothermal Systems— a geothermal power technology which could expand the already considerable geothermal power potential of the United States. Well the DOE has announced the lucky winners. There are 21 awardees who will be receiving a total of $43.1 million over the next four years; with the cost-sharing provisions of the Funding Opportunity Announcement, the total awards amount to $78 million. Presumably there will be another announcement for the rest of the previously announced funding. Here’s who’s receiving some federal cash and what they’re working on:What’s an Enhanced Geothermal System Anyway?Before we do that though, and so everyone’s on the same page, this is what Enhanced Geothermal Systems are about (the video is from Google, who have recently backed the technology):

That out of the way, here’s the DOE funding list:

Component Technologies R&D;

Baker-Hughes, Inc (Houston, Texas): to develop an ultrasonic borehole televiewer that can operate at a temperature of 300°C and at a depth of 10,000 meters. The proposed tool will provide a means to detect fractures in the subsurface and is critical for the commercialization of EGS (up to $3,139,364)

Colorado School of Mines, Boise State University, Flint LLC, Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC (Golden, Colo.): to conduct a geophysical characterization of a geothermal system taking advantage of the latest developments in Self Potential Method and Seismic Interferometry (up to $867,564).

Foulger Consulting and U.S. Geological Survey, Geosystem with WesternGeco, US Navy, Magma Energy US Corporation, and DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Menlo Park, Calif.): to develop high-resolution micro-earthquake tools and methods suited to monitoring EGS-induced geothermal micro-earthquakes. The ultimate goal is to develop an industrial tool to obtain detailed seismic structure of geothermal areas without the need for major active-source seismic surveys (up to $561,729).

GE Global Research with Auburn University and GE Energy (Niskayuna, N.Y.): to develop a platform of electronics technologies that can operate at 300 °C and 10 km depth enabling the measurement of temperature, flow, pressure and seismicity in an EGS reservoir (up to $1,599,934).

Hattenburg, Dilley, and Linnell, LLC with University of Utah/Energy and Geoscience Institute (EGI) (Anchorage, Alaska): to identify open fracture systems by their Fluid Inclusion Stratigraphy (FIS) chemical signature; differences based on the mineral assemblages and geology of the system; and chemical precursors in the wall rock above open, large fractures (up to $313,858).

image: US DOEHi-Q Geophysical Inc., Ormat Technologies, Inc. and Stephen Muir with DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Ponca City, Okla.): to develop surface and borehole seismic methodologies using both compression and shear waves for characterizing fractures in EGS. Both VSP and surface multi-component acquisition geometries will be evaluated (up to $817,757).

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chevron and DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (Cambridge, Mass.): to combine detailed high-resolution analysis of microseismicity accompanying the stimulation of an EGS reservoir with a state-of-the-art geomechanical model of the reservoir to investigate the relationship between the seismicity and flow characteristics (up to $508,633).

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New England Research with ENEL North America (Cambridge, Mass.): to combine the use of geophysical methods for reservoir and fracture characterization with a rock physics model calibrated via advanced laboratory measurements made on reservoir rocks under in situ conditions of temperature (up to 300°C) and pressure (up to $1,019,769).

Schlumberger (Sugar Land, Texas): to extend the internal operating range of Electrically Submersible Pump (ESP’s) to 338°C for application in both geothermal and the increasingly hotter Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) wells and to develop a heat transfer model that will adequately predict the ESP’s internal operating temperature (up to $1,245,751).

Schlumberger (Sugar Land, Texas): to develop a downhole monitoring system to be used in wells with bottom hole temperatures up to 300°C for measuring parameters of an Electrically Submersible Pump (ESP) and well conditions (pressure and temperature) and develop a heat transfer model for the motor that will adequately predict ESP internal operating temperature (up to $1,253,959).

Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.): to develop wellbore tools including a downhole enthalpy meter and reservoir engineering approaches including nanotechnology, Resistivity Computer Tomography (RCT) method, and nonparametric regression for fracture characterization in both near well and interwell regions (up to $967,541).

University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah): to investigate the effect of proppants on fracture stability and their interactions with injected fluids at geothermal temperatures in environments that simulate stresses within the reservoir. The use of proppants to both maintain open fractures, as well as their potential to divert fluids from fracture pathways detrimental to long term sustainability (e.g. fast paths), will be assessed (up to $978,180).

System Demonstrations

AltaRock Energy Inc. and Northern California Power Agency, University of Utah, Texas A&M; University, Science Applications International Corporation, Temple University (Seattle, WA): to use an innovative stimulation process to create an EGS reservoir that will drill below the permeable zone, stimulate in the contained zone with infrastructure in place, and increase power production (up to $6,014,351).

Geysers Power Co., LLC and DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Middletown, Calif.): to deepen wells into a high temperature zone and thermally stimulate with cold water to increase power production (up to $5,697,700).

ORMAT Nevada, Inc. and GeothermEx, DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Utah, Pinnacle Technologies, GeoMechanics International, University of Nevada - Reno, TerraTek/Schlumberger (Reno, Nev.): to stimulate multiple wells at Brady Field to access existing fracture system (up to $3,374,430).

University of Utah and U.S. Geothermal, APEX Petroleum Engineering Services, HiPoint Reservoir Imaging, Chevron (Salt Lake City, Utah): To perform a monitored hydraulic stimulation of an existing injection well at Raft River (Selected for negotiation of award in FY09) (up to $8,928,999).